By A Gabriel Marcus
Perhaps the baldest fact learned from researching shaving – talking to either professional barbers or groomers – is that most men don’t know how to shave. Some were taught by their fathers (and often badly) while others regularly hack away with a rusty bic. And nearly all complain about cuts, razor burn and blotchy skin.

The Barber’s Shop Hot Towel Treatment
The archetype of a perfect shave is a Victorian barbershop hot-towel and ‘cut-throat’ razor treatment. The kind of thing you find in Dickens. Although Geo F Trumpers, traditional Mayfair barbers founded in 1875 have updated the tradition to include a post-shave moisturiser.
The barbershop hot towels are useful because they soften bristles and open pores. It is common these days for a modern barber, to then add a mixture of shaving soap and some pre-shave oil or moisturiser. This creates a buffer along the surface of the skin. And makes for a smoother shave. The razor is less likely to nick or cut.
Decleor have long manufactured their ‘Aromessecne Homme’; a blend of essential oils aimed squarely at the ‘Homme’. A product like this is ideal for this pre-shave moisturiser and soap combination.
Shaving Against the Grain
It is also good to shave against the grain. A man must work out which direction the hairs are growing and learn to follow this ‘grain’ of growth. It is shaving against the grain that leads to cuts and bumps which themselves, in turn, lead to further cuts and bumps.
Modern barbers tend to avoid after-shave. They have noted that these stingy, zingy alcohol-based colognes lead to red blotchy skin. A more subtle touch is to apply cologne to the back of the neck.
The hot towel treatment also functions as an exfoliation. Getting rid of dead skin also helps for a smoother shave. Otherwise dead skin traps new growth and this leads to in-growing hairs.
However men should note that some growth is worth keeping because it defines the cheekbones and jaw-line.
So short side-burns, for example, shorter than where the mid-ear meets the jaw, can leave a man looking weak and ill-defined.
The razor is also important; from the early cut-throats to the first safetys and more recent hi-tech innovations. Many barbers favour the Gillette Mach III.
Literature offers a few words on shaving – most interesting is a recommendation from Joyce’s Ulysses - a masterpiece that begins with a highly ritualised morning shave. However Joyce’s everyman Leopold Bloom prefers to shave at night.
The nocturnal shave, says Bloom offers ‘quiet reflections upon the course of the day’ and guarantees ‘a softer skin if unexpectedly encountering female acquaintances in remote places at incustomary hours’.